Robert Debono, a hospitality industry veteran, has set out a candid framework for anyone considering a career or business venture in the sector, warning that romanticised notions of ownership are among the most common reasons people come unstuck.
Debono’s central argument is that the first question anyone should ask themselves is not whether they feel passionate about hospitality, but whether they love it enough to endure what it will genuinely demand. The hours are long, the pressure is constant and the commitment required is considerably greater than most newcomers anticipate. If the underlying motivation is not solid, he argued, that gap becomes apparent quickly.
Debono also pushed back against the instinct to replicate what appears to have worked for others. A successful venue’s results, he cautioned, are typically built on factors invisible to outside observers: timing, location, established relationships and years of quiet groundwork. Attempting to reproduce someone else’s formula without those foundations rarely produces the outcome people hope for.
His sharpest observation was directed at those drawn to hospitality primarily by the appeal of ownership. He was direct in saying that pride in the idea of running a venue is not a sufficient foundation for a business. The financials have to stack up on their own terms. Once costs accumulate and the initial excitement subsides, any operation built on ego rather than commercial logic tends to deteriorate fast.
Debono accompanied the post with an image from the soft launch of the Hard Rock venue at St George’s Bay, expressing confidence that a colleague named Ryan would help drive the project’s success through hard work, the right attitude and attention to detail.
The overall tone sits some distance from standard industry cheerleading. Rather than encouraging aspiration for its own sake, the thrust of the advice is a straightforward acknowledgement that hospitality rewards those who enter with both genuine commitment and sound commercial thinking and tends to expose those who do not.
